Aspiring to the Immortal Path

Fwip!

In the Hall of Divine Conference, a star blinked out of existence.

Seated in the hall, Tang Jie gazed at that dead star and snapped his fingers.

A boy entered.

Tang Jie casually said, "The formation eye at Lion Ridge has been extinguished. Have the Seven Absolutions Sect immediately dispatch people to recover the area and repair the formation eye."

"As the Celestial Sovereign commands." The boy bowed and withdrew.

Tang Jie sat back down and gazed up at the stars.

The cultivator war had already gone on for several months.

In this time, the Rosecloud Domain and Blood River Domain had been engaged in a brutal campaign.

Countless heroes had arisen, countless braves had fallen, and countless cultivators had broken through in the middle of this life-or-death combat and soared in strength.

War was the birthplace of heroes!

At the same time, this war was when the Blood River Domain fell into decline.

Initially, the Blood River Domain could rely on their advantage in geography to launch sneak attacks on the scattered formation eyes. But as time passed, the Rosecloud Domain developed a better grasp of the Blood River Domain's movements, and under pressure from Tang Jie, the humans of the Blood River Domain finally joined the battle. Pushed to the limit, the Blood River Domain's forces began to meet setback after setback.

The fiends and demons of the Blood River Domain had fewer and fewer locations that they could attack, while more and more formation eyes were being repaired, hastening the merging process. At this point, very few stars were going out.

The Rosecloud Domain was consuming vast tracts of the Blood River Domain every day. One year ago, they were like two adults hugging, but now, the Blood River Domain was a withered husk while the Rosecloud Domain was swelling like a balloon.

The entirety of the Rosecloud Domain was being remolded in a grand reconstruction. Of course, all this shifting of land required several migrations, and the great powerhouses had been there to protect the lives of the common people.

This was also why Tang Jie and the others couldn't so easily intervene in the battle. Other than issuing commands and overseeing the overall war situation, they also had to attend to the land.

But as the land and the general situation in the Rosecloud Domain stabilized, so did the war. The Blood River Domain was constantly losing land, and even its residents were being forced to migrate to the Rosecloud Domain.

In Rosecloud, a group of cultivators had been tasked with clearing land for new cities and building roads and bridges, as well as granting various tools to the people so that they could work. Thus, rather than suffer, the people actually prospered because of the war.

Numerous great cities rose up, and new regions formed.

More magnificent vistas appeared in the world, more resplendent lakes and majestic mountains.

This was all thanks to the joint effort of the Violet Palace True Lords and countless cultivators under them.

Humans once placed their ambitions on overcoming the heavens, and in the Great Stellar Chiliocosm, humanity had accomplished this.

Their power rested not in the ability to destroy a world, but to protect a world!

Of course, as the losing party, the Blood River Domain went on a berserk counterattack, particularly as they were innately savage fiends and demons. As the situation fell out of their favor, they put aside all dignity and pride and began to attack ordinary mortals.

Fortunately, Yun Tianlan and the others had predicted this. To be more precise, cultivators had a history of more than ten thousand years, and there were too many examples to study. In his travels, Yun Tianlan had long ago learned that such things could happen, so under his command, he seized this moment to deal the two races a heavy loss.

But war was war, and not everything could go as one wanted. So long as there was war, there would inevitably be the loss of innocent life.

No matter what Yun Tianlan and Tang Jie did, such losses were unavoidable, and in a sneak attack by the fiends and demons, a few human cities were massacred, with numerous mortals dying.

Other than exacting a brutal reprisal, Yun Tianlan and Tang Jie couldn't do anything else except pay more attention.

But this challenging period had passed, and Tang Jie could finally breathe a little easier.

Yet there was still a tinge of unease.

He was still thinking about the Blood River Lord's threat and worried about what he could do to this world.

To this end, Tang Jie had made the Flame Celestial Sovereign keep his cover, the City of Freedom standing on the side of the fiends and demons.

Even so, the Flame Celestial Sovereign was unable to get him the information he wanted.

Tang Jie wondered if the Flame Celestial Sovereign was doing this on purpose to give him trouble.

From the Flame Celestial Sovereign's perspective, such conduct wasn't strange.

As he was thinking this, a red light flew into the hall.

It went up to Tang Jie and then ignited into a flame that took the form of the Flame Celestial Sovereign.

The Flame Celestial Sovereign bowed to Tang Jie. "Greetings, Master!"

"Have you brought me news this time?"

His voice was devoid of emotion, but the Flame Celestial Sovereign knew that Tang Jie had lost his patience long ago.

Still bowed, he replied, "It was Qianli's incompetence that resulted in this long delay. Fortunately, my efforts have finally borne fruit."

"Speak!"

"Yes. As Master commanded, I spared no effort in attempting to find out what Blood River's trump card was, but Blood River remained silent and refused to tell me. A few days ago, I joined together with the other fiend and demon Immortals to force Blood River to tell us something, with the excuse of the Blood River Domain's survival being at stake."

"What is it?"

"It turns out that in the depths of Blood River is a set of remains possessing immense power."

"'Remains possessing immense power'?" Tang Jie curiously asked.

What sort of remains would be so formidable?

The Flame Celestial Sovereign answered, "Old Blood River refused to give details, other than that these were the remains of some incredible individual. Even though they were dead, their remains had enough power to make the entire chiliocosm pale."

Tang Jie shook his head. "'Dead' is 'dead'. No matter how strong they were in life, everything ends with death. The dead can leave behind vast treasures and turn into entire worlds, but this doesn't change the fact that they are still dead and cannot interfere in the wars of the living. A set of remains shouldn't be the Lord of the Blood River's last trump card."

"But that's what the Lord of the Blood River said. He even said…" The Flame Celestial Sovereign hesitated.

"What did he say?" Tang Jie stared at him.

The Flame Celestial Sovereign finally awkwardly said, "He said that he existed to protect these remains. If one day those remains were unsealed, he would lose his reason for existing. At that time, he would disappear."

Tang Jie was startled. "You're saying…"

"He will die!" the Flame Celestial Sovereign said. "This is why he's been unwilling to use this trump card."

Tang Jie narrowed his eyes.

He didn't know if the Flame Celestial Sovereign was telling the truth.

There were too many suspicious points, possibly because the Flame Celestial Sovereign was tricking him, or because the Lord of the Blood River was tricking the Flame Celestial Sovereign, or perhaps the Lord of the Blood River didn't even know what he was talking about.

Countless secrets had been lost in the river of time, and there was no telling what strange and mystical things were hidden within the chiliocosm. No one could say what one could run into and what would be the consequences of interacting with it.

It was like how the Court of Myriad Domains had contained the Primordial Heavenly Demon and the Bejeweled Star Lord. Some people and events might affect one, or they might be just temporary guests that went about their business without any effect.

Were the remains at the bottom of Blood River real or fake? If they were real, who did they belong to? And what would happen if they were unsealed?

Tang Jie didn't know the answers to any of these questions, but he had a strong urge to take a look.

A set of remains that the Lord of the Blood River had spent his entire life sealing made for some shocking news.

After thinking it over, Tang Jie nodded. "Understood. You go back. Keep an eye on Blood River's movements, and it would be best if you could find out the location of the remains."

The Flame Celestial Sovereign replied, "In truth, Master, it is very easy to find out the location of the remains."

"How so?"

"Attack with all your might!" the Flame Celestial Sovereign answered. "In desperate straits, the Lord of the Blood River will have no choice but to release the remains to take us all down with him… so long as he's telling the truth."

"But if I do that, it will be too late to react."

"It's just a set of remains. No matter how powerful it was in life, it shouldn't be able to cause much of a stir in death."

"Is that so? You seem to have forgotten what happened in the Five Origins Estate. A True Immortal of the past came back to life there," Tang Jie coolly replied. "Of course, you might not have forgotten. Instead, you remember more than anyone else."

He sharply glared at the Flame Celestial Sovereign!

His heart thumped, and he immediately dropped to his knees. "Master, please calm your anger! Your servant has no thoughts of betrayal!"

"You and I both know whether that's true or not. I don't need your loyalty, only that you do your job well. But if you do something you shouldn't, you had best think twice about what the consequences will be."

The Flame Celestial Sovereign hastily replied, "Your servant understands! Your servant simply thinks that if those remains really exist, then it shouldn't be as terrifying as the Lord of the Blood River thinks. It's simply a conception he developed while standing guard over it for ten thousand years. But all of its power is a thing of the past. Let alone some remains, even if it was a living person, what could they do? A Boundless Gold Immortal wouldn't be enough to stand against the Rosecloud Domain's power!"

This was true.

In the Great Stellar Chiliocosm, so long as the gap in strength wasn't too big, numbers couldn't be ignored.

The combined power of the Rosecloud Domain, if they were ready and prepared, could even defeat a Boundless Gold Immortal, though the price that would be paid was another matter. A Gold Immortal was certainly strong enough to drag down half a world's cultivators with them into the grave. However, there was a higher possibility that they would utilize the cultivation gap to engage in hit-and-run tactics, and there was nothing that could be done about that.

The Flame Celestial Sovereign fearfully gazed at Tang Jie.

Tang Jie closed his eyes in thought for some time before finally dismissing him. "Leave. I have my own plans."

"As you command!" The Flame Celestial Sovereign's flame avatar departed.

Tang Jie rose and walked to the rear of the hall.

This was too important of a matter to decide alone, so he needed to speak with Yun Tianlan.